[QUOTE=bigfred;14088950]You bunch of cowards! Hiding behind your "real" names on Strava. There are a few exceptions who make it easy to connect their performances to their bike forums user name. Thanks Beanz.[QUOTE]

Hahaha! Not sure it's a coward thing, other riders using real names. Might be a noob thing. There have been times I have signed up for a site and because it asked for my name I used it then realized it was using that name as my user name. Dang! Then I had to go back and change it to the desired username.

In this case, I was just one step ahead after having encountered the issue years back.

You bunch of cowards! Hiding behind your "real" names on Strava. There are a few exceptions who make it easy to connect their performances to their bike forums user name. Thanks Beanz.

Oh, wait. Maybe I should change my name? Nah, what would the point be? Either way, I'm a "Fred".

I haven't found Jake yet...sorry, jeez.

Originally Posted by snowman40

If you must speed up to pass me, you don't deserve to pass me

Originally Posted by abstractform20

farts are greatly appreciated as long as the other riders are talented and experienced. at the precise moment of release, a vacuum is formed. this is the optimal time for the rider behind you to get as aero as possible and "ride the brown rhino". his face should be within 2-3mm of the anus to receive maximum benefit (reduced drag...duh, its in a vacuum). i have hit speeds of over 53mph in such conditions.

Hahaha! Not sure it's a coward thing, other riders using real names. Might be a noob thing. There have been times I have signed up for a site and because it asked for my name I used it then realized it was using that name as my user name. Dang! Then I had to go back and change it to the desired username.

In this case, I was just one step ahead after having encountered the issue years back.

I don't think it can be considered noob, Facebook has changed the way people interact online and with their privacy by allowing other sites to access Facebook data. How many people signed up using their Facebook login? I didn't, but I didn't sign up to join clubs. I love the segment feature!

Originally Posted by snowman40

If you must speed up to pass me, you don't deserve to pass me

Originally Posted by abstractform20

farts are greatly appreciated as long as the other riders are talented and experienced. at the precise moment of release, a vacuum is formed. this is the optimal time for the rider behind you to get as aero as possible and "ride the brown rhino". his face should be within 2-3mm of the anus to receive maximum benefit (reduced drag...duh, its in a vacuum). i have hit speeds of over 53mph in such conditions.

Holy cats - you too? I haven't dropped a bottle in 10 years and I dropped one TWICE last Saturday.

As for shorter segments - I can explain why they exist. The street I live on is a great climbing hill (if you're into that sort of thing) but I live in the middle. I'll rarely do the whole thing so I broke it in half just for giggles. That way I can keep track of where I am relative to last time I rode but physics being what it is, I'll never have the KOM.

You guys are the best. So much encouragement. I hope you don't feel like I'm sandbagging somehow (Dan H.) by being in your group. I am still around 205, so a borderline ex-clyde. To all of you out there, keep it up, I was almost 300 pounds a little more than a year ago.

Is "premium membership" worth it? How much more do you get? They don't do a very good job of showing you what you have to gain from upgrading, beyond telling you that they'll grade your rides on a "suffer" scale and provide the ability to sort by age and weight.

Any premium members want to give me an idea of how they determine the "sufferage" score? Maybe tell me how much I suffered on 15/04/12. I'm pretty sure that's one score that would be counterproductive to chase much. Doing so, would probably lead to too much aerobic threashold work at the expense of strength, speed and endurance.

Is "premium membership" worth it? How much more do you get? They don't do a very good job of showing you what you have to gain from upgrading, beyond telling you that they'll grade your rides on a "suffer" scale and provide the ability to sort by age and weight.

Any premium members want to give me an idea of how they determine the "sufferage" score? Maybe tell me how much I suffered on 15/04/12. I'm pretty sure that's one score that would be counterproductive to chase much. Doing so, would probably lead to too much aerobic threashold work at the expense of strength, speed and endurance.

I got my one month premie membership with the code mentioned earlier in the thread. About to expire but the price si pretty heavy IMO. I see I can compare my times to others in age categories and weight categories. Other than that, I don't see the need. I don't use a hr monitor so the suffer thingy won't do my any good.

I did see a post from a few months ago where the trial period was like 3 months. If I run acorss one of those, I'll use the premie again but doubt I'd pay that kind of price for so little extra. $60 per year?

I felt MUCH stronger last Saturday, not sure why, and you can see that I worked much harder too (last week, I mean.) I'm coming up on the end of my premium membership in a few days (somebody posted a trial code so i tried it) and I think I might extend it. The HR info I see here is more interesting to me than the HR info I see at garmin's website.

I would say if you don't use a HR monitor that it's not worth it - there are plenty of benefits that you can derive from Strava without premium membership. There are plenty of riders using Strava around here though, and even a few clydes. I'm sure Beanz noticed that even though he set his PR on "3 mile TT" today on the Santa Ana river trail, I still smoked him. Of course, he torched me on plenty of other segments on that same route, so really it's just a bit of motivation that tells me I can improve. Watching a pro rider blast up a hill provides no such motivation.

Smoked is smoked, that's all I have to say. So... you noticed that little dig, did you?

Bah, that wasn't a warmup, that was well into the ride. Tailwind though, I'll give you that. The return was miserable, ergo the average speed stunk. Maybe it would have been better if I was drafting some speedy chick bikers?

Smoked is smoked, that's all I have to say. So... you noticed that little dig, did you?

Bah, that wasn't a warmup, that was well into the ride. Tailwind though, I'll give you that. The return was miserable, ergo the average speed stunk. Maybe it would have been better if I was drafting some speedy chick bikers?

YoOu are motivating me to get back into shape. Then my solo 18.5 average will challenge you any day!